Like to see Anderson move quickly on these boated public safety pensions, we’ve got to put an end to fireman retiring at $220,000 annually. Fair pensions yes, elephant sized pensions no. Voters are hopping mad about these mega pensions that allow Contra Costa retiree’s to party it up with Sammy Haggar down in Cabo San Lucas six months a year. And let’s put an end to double dipping too, no more retiring today – at age 52 – and then immediatly going back to work on the CC County public payroll. We’ve got kids graduating from college that need jobs. tons of people out of work, this double dipping stuff has got to end. Jerry Bown is stopping this in Sacramento, we need to do this in Martinez too.

She won’t be able to do anything unilaterally. It would take a coalition of Anderson, Piepho and one of the non-conservatives on the board to force the issue.

The general public doesn’t seem to get it as to just how out of whack these pensions are. If somebody makes private sector comparisons, the defenders of the status quo toss out “average pension” numbers that are totally misleading; or say they knowingly took a lower salary to be a public servant in exchange for a higher pension; or argue that instead of a “race to the bottom,” private sector plans should be increased; or that they pay into the plan; or just argue that “a deal’s a deal,” no matter how unsustainable.

Back in the day many moons ago when defined benefit pensions were more common in the private sector, the plans that blue chip companies offered pale in comparison to the public employee plans — not just today’s public plans, but the plans that existed before they raised them 50% during Gray Davis’s tenure. In terms of the total retirement lifetime amount to be paid out from date of retirement to normal life expectancy, the public plans for general employees (not even considering public safety or spiking) are about three times as generous as the best of the private sector plans that once existed. That’s taking into consideration earlier start date for receiving a full pension, the automatic cost of living increases, the “final year” income and “multiplier” used to calculate the pension. It’s unbelievable.

I agree completely with Rew’s and John W.’s statements. Gray Davis’ S.B. 400, signed in December 1999, deserves much of the blame for the outrageous public safety pensions across California. (John W. refers to the “50%” increase in pension benefits to some state workers under S.B. 400 — he’s absolutely correct — CHP retirees moved from a 2% at 50 to a 3% at 50 system, even though those retirees hadn’t contributed a dime towards their 50% higher pensions!) Local governments, including Contra Costa County in 2002 in the Moraga-Orinda Fire District in 2003, “had” to follow the state’s lead in order to retain their employees. Many local governments have been forced to ratchet down their unsustainable pension schemes by sheer economics, but Sacramento apparently has done nothing to amend S.B. 400 for new hires, etc. (Yet Sacramento politicians want voters to raise their taxes in November, which really is a “bail out” for these over-generous pensions.) The ultimate test of Supervisor Andersen’s credibility as a responsible county official will be how she handles public safety workers’ pay and benefits. She campaigned as a pension reformer, yet received lavish campaign support from county public safety worker unions. If “pension reform” to Supervisor Andersen means “let’s issue a couple of symbolic anti-pension spiking press releases and then do nothing that actually affects my public safety union friends who helped elect me (a la Mark DeSaulnier, co-creator of Contra Costa’s pension mess),” then voters should have asked tougher questions of her during the recent campaign. But Supervisor-elect Andersen deserves the benefit of the doubt. A Supervisor Van den Brooke very likely would have joined Supervisors Gioia, Glover and Mitchoff in lockstep in blocking any meaningful pension reforms because their union “puppet masters” keep them on very short leashes. This factor alone may explain Andersen’s landslide victory on June 5th.

I am skeptical Anderson will do anything about these bloated public safety pensions, given her backing of law enforcement unions. For many politicians pension reform for public safety unions is off table, reform for everybody else, but not for public safety workers. I think 2.5% per year for each year worked is fine, but 3% a year is too much, I think that’s excessive. This ace reporter Dan Borenstein of the Times thinks so too, he has written many articles explaining to Contra Costa Times readers how these unfunded retiree benefits are unsustainable, they are bankrupting cities up and down state. I’m a blue collar worker myself – I strongly favor high wages, but I am just aghast when I read about these public safety workers retiring with $100,000 a year pensions at age 52, it’s like wow, they hit the lottery or something. The public reads about this stuff and they think, geez, what’s going on with our elected officials, that’s taxpayer money they are giving away. Fair pensions yes, bloated mega pensions no, that’s my mantra. We’ve got colleges to fund, roads to fix, health care for the poor, I mean we have a lot of things to pay for, so we can’t have 40% of the budgets going to retirees. That’s just common sense.

Let us therefore brace ourselves for the testing time in our great representative democracy and not be afraid to take precautionary measures when deemed necessary by reasonable and prudent electors.

A Contra Costa County firefighter had total cost of employment of $380,666

INCLUDING $161,642 in overtime pay

http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/bay-area/2011

At some point, there has to be a day of reckoning where the public employees and their trained politicians are brought down with the rest of us.

This will, of course, be accompanied by a great deal of moaning, groaning and gnashing of teeth. It will make Wisconsin look like a church picnic.

It will not be pleasant, but it must be done if we are not to become another Greece.

Lisa V. wrote an article about the Fire District’s tax workshop. I keep looking for a blog with comments about it. Maybe some day?
I will have to edit my little speech by next Tuesday, the 26th.
I expect pigs to fly, before The CCC, BOS. pays any attention to peoples comments. It is the only way to see government at play.